BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
